Writing makes me happy. Editing and proof reading not so much. I’m now around 30K into draft two of the novel. There have been a few cringe worthy moments (did I really write that?), more than one double take (that makes zero sense, Stephen. Zero sense) and the occasional stunned pause (er….actually that’s not bad). Slow progress continues to be made, despite the constant distraction life throws in the way.

At this rate I should be finished by around 2045. Well, maybe not but it feels like that sometimes. I’ve had to de-Belfast some of the dialogue because, otherwise, 99.99999% you wouldn’t have a clue what the characters were talking about. I’ve also started some historical research which will form the back story of several of the main characters. Battle of Waterloo anybody? I’m a mine of useless information on it now. Ask me anything.

I’ve no idea at what stage an author stops tapping their keyboard, leans back and goes ‘That’s it. I’m done.’ I imagine they will have to pry my cold, dead fingers from the manuscript as I’m hauled kicking and screaming off to the nearest padded cell. As ever the support I’ve received from you guys has been amazing. If it wasn’t for your feedback I doubt if I would have ever started this project, let alone persisted to this point.

I’m going to make these updates a weekly feature. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more but I’ve been advised to keep the plot a closely guarded secret for now. All will be revealed in due course. In the meantime you will just have to be patient. I hope it will be worth the wait for those of you who have expressed an interest in reading the finished product. Now I had better get back to editing this chapter *sighs*

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca.
We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised.
But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all.
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It’s possible to make the proofreading and editing process less of a chore. I list a few tips in my blog post, “The Joys of Editing” (https://wp.me/p30cCH-L1).

Keeping track of the chapter length helped me know when I was done with editing, because there came a time when revising things didn’t significantly affect word count: There is usually more than one good way to express something, and those ways don’t often vary much in the number of words they use.

I knew I was done proofreading the manuscript when a full reading could find an average of 1 error (preferably less) per chapter. That would add up to 34 mistakes (preferably fewer), which constituted what I felt was the irreducible minimum for a book that was close to 200,000 words long. That doesn’t mean they were the last 34 existing mistakes, because I knew I’d still miss finding errors. It just meant that despite my being a perfectionist, I wasn’t going to let the job of proofreading drive me nuts. (I’ve found as many errors – and even more – in “professionally edited” books put out by traditional publishers.)

A perspective from an editor is always great. For my novelette, I edited it myself. It was challenging writing in a perspective of a person with stage 2 Alzheimer’s.

In film school, there is a saying: “Once you’ve sold your script, it is unrecognizable by the time Hollywood gets their hands on it.” This simply implies that it gets rewritten so much that it is quite ridiculous.

In a novel, it is bit different. A person is more free to express themselves in their on terms; however, editing is a task on their own. The novel I am editing went from 180 pages to 101 pages. So, I find myself having to rewrite it to make it a full length novel form once again.

After 17 months of writing (with a 6 month hiatus in the middle there), I edited for 3.5 months. It was just like you described above! I finally took a break and let two people read my manuscript, (one friend, one family member). Apparently, there are still “so many type-o’s.” Really?? The thought of starting another round of systematic editing makes me cringe. I think I’ll just starting writing a whole new book! 🙂

Thank you very much for the offer to read it, but it’s most probably going to be thoroughly worked through as my graduate thesis in creative writing, where I will get feedback from my fellow students. I just need to take a break from it for a while. It’s 100,000 words of speculative fiction, a character driven story with a science fiction element placing it in an alternate present. Not dystopian, or at least it doesn’t appear to be, unless we want to explore the possibility that our here and now itself is fairly dystopian. 🙂

After writing daily for so long, I am enjoying reading blogs, and getting back into the community of writers. But it feels strange to not be actively writing, so I think I may be starting a new project, just to keep the creativity flowing. 🙂

Way to go!!! I do snippet editing like I shared, and even today as I was going through Ch. 2 (I was prepping it to send to some test readers, and I always like rereading before I send it out). It’s nice to be able to step back from what you just wrote, and really look over what to add or take away. I know I will be needing to add some more detail pieces, just small ones. Keep at it. Some writers struggle so much with editing, like you said, they never feel ready. Don’t feel like that, but know your limits, and be willing to push yourself. Although, I have to admit, your visual of editing your manuscript to death did get me laugh. I relate. I think it is wise to guard the plot.

I have 7 test readers, four are bloggers I reached out, 2 are test readers I know personally, and 1 I know personally, but she will be my editor once the book is written so she won’t see anything till it is all done. I think if you are going the self publish route you should be able to share more, and once the book is closer to getting published (should you work with an agent) that will be I think when you’re told to start talking about the book more.

I could be wrong though. But I have seen multiple people who have published books, say they have a “project” and they can’t say anything, but then when it gets closer to a book release date they reveal what the project was.

I think as long as you do not go through Amazon or any other place that matches websites for content and prices the lowest, you should be okay. Or be very vague. When I have talked about the book, I’ve been exceedingly vague.

This was fun to read. Thanks.
I drafted a novel once, it looked beautiful during the writing process then I finished, I needed to edit (slamming palm on forehead) i got worn out and stopped and I honestly haven’t been able to read through the story again.
Every time, I see my pile of pages sitting on my screen and I skip it to write my new story I’m working on now. I’m hopeful to publish this one.